When drawing peripheral blood cultures are people only using one alcohol wipe or three like in the past and also do you leave wipe on bottle top prior to drawing. Thank you
A swipe or 2 with a single alcohol pad is not sufficient skin antisepsis for anything, including blood cultures and insertion of a PIV. If using alcohol alone, my rule has always been scrub with as many as it takes to have the last pad with no trace of visible discoloration from skin oils and other cellular debris. I would strongly recommend using alcoholic CHG instead of alcohol alone. Disinfecting the top of the top of all vials - both blood cultures bottles and medications - is a critical step as that cap is simply a dust cover. Alcoihol scrub is sufficient for this step. This is now included in the INS Standard Phlebotomy. Lynn
Thank you just wanted to clarify that one alcohol swab on bottle was sufficient and also do you leave it on there. I saw standard but was not sure of these details.
Thanks
The Standards are not intended to have this level of detail in any procedure. Handle any alcohol pad as little as possible. Discard it after a single use. It would be ok to leave the alcohol pad on top of the culture bottle until you are ready to connect the blood to the system using to obtain the blood. The main point is to disinfect the rubber stoppered top. Lynn
A swipe or 2 with a single alcohol pad is not sufficient skin antisepsis for anything, including blood cultures and insertion of a PIV. If using alcohol alone, my rule has always been scrub with as many as it takes to have the last pad with no trace of visible discoloration from skin oils and other cellular debris. I would strongly recommend using alcoholic CHG instead of alcohol alone. Disinfecting the top of the top of all vials - both blood cultures bottles and medications - is a critical step as that cap is simply a dust cover. Alcoihol scrub is sufficient for this step. This is now included in the INS Standard Phlebotomy. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
Thank you just wanted to clarify that one alcohol swab on bottle was sufficient and also do you leave it on there. I saw standard but was not sure of these details.
Thanks
The Standards are not intended to have this level of detail in any procedure. Handle any alcohol pad as little as possible. Discard it after a single use. It would be ok to leave the alcohol pad on top of the culture bottle until you are ready to connect the blood to the system using to obtain the blood. The main point is to disinfect the rubber stoppered top. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861